Cold feet ahead of drive

The sealing drive is supposed to resume from Wednesday but the MCD is still struggling for a solution, reports Vibha Sharma.

The sealing drive is supposed to resume from Wednesday but the MCD is still struggling for a solution.The much-awaited meeting between MCD officials and members of the court-constituted Monitoring Committee that was slated to take place on Monday was called off at the last minute.

“With Central Government giving indications to approach the Supreme Court for relief, the Monitoring Committee members did not want to comment on the matter. Hence, the meeting was cancelled at the last minute,” said a senior MCD officer. The MCD had requested the Monitoring Committee to consider postponing the drive to a later date. “We are hoping that the committee members would consider our request postponing the sealing drive. We don’t have enough backup. We don’t want to risk the lives of our officials,” said a zonal deputy commissioner.

The MCD officials have, however, prepared two alternative plans. “If we do not hear from the committee members by tomorrow, then we would have to go ahead with the sealing drive. We have already prepared over 60 teams to cover the 12 zones in the city,” the officer said. The 48,000-odd traders who had submitted affidavits to close shops by June 30, all illegal shops in category A and B colonies and establishments covered under the negative list (hazardous units) would face closure from November 1. Traders having establishments on the 2183 roads notified as commercial have time till January next year.